I'm in a similar situation where I used Perl and then was required to use Java on some projects. What worked for me, and there are many approaches, is to learn Java the same way I learned Perl, through books... and not try to code Java using 'Perl Style'.

It seems that you will be dong considerable work with Java so it might be good to put in the time and get a good foundation. Sun has some good (?) introductory tutorials. If learning through books is your thing a great book on effective Java programming is Bloch's Effective Java: Programming Language Guide, a new edition came out last month. There are also a number of intro books , one which is free and available online is Thinking in Java, this was good in my opinion for getting the language 'mindset'...

Good luck...